Electronic products typically have their circuitry mounted on substrates, commonly printed circuit boards. In turn, efficient manufacturing methods requires the fastening of the printed circuit board to the housing of the electronic product. One such method provides for mounting a printed circuit board on a boss formed in a housing via a hole formed in the printed circuit board. The portion of the boss remaining above the printed circuit board after mounting is then deformed by heat staking or ultrasonically welding to form a cap above the printed circuit board. Deforming the boss is an efficient manufacturing method for fastening a printed circuit board to a housing, but this method fails to provide a reusable, repairable fastener.
Repairing presently used heat staked or ultrasonically welded fasteners requires the tedious removal of the deformed portion in order to obtain easy access to the printed circuit board. Furthermore, once the heat staked portion is removed and the printed circuit board is repaired, the boss can not be easily reused for refastening the printed circuit board to the housing. More likely than not, the entire housing portion may require replacement since there is no easy method of refastening the housing to the circuit board. Thus, a need exists for a repairable boss formed in a first member for fastening a second member such as a printed circuit board once a portion of the boss is removed.